The present invention relates to a paper processing apparatus which judges types of money and the original or an imitation of money while conveying sheets of paper like bank notes. Particularly, the invention relates to a paper processing apparatus which is built into an automatic teller machine (hereinafter to be referred to as an ATM) that executes an automatic transaction of a reception and a payment of bank notes.
Recently, automation has been progressed in various fields, and types of paper, such as bank notes and admission tickets, have also been judged automatically with a paper processing apparatus. This paper processing apparatus is built into an ATM, for example. Further, unattended operation of the ATM has also been progressed as a recent trend. However, as the span for an operator to maintain and inspect the ATM becomes long, there have been many problems in the unattended operation.
A conventional paper processing apparatus is built into the ATM. This paper processing apparatus is mainly constructed of: an optical sensor which detects a design of front and back sides of each sheet of paper sequentially conveyed at high speed, and a light quantity corresponding to a shading of the paper; an amplifier which amplifies an output of the optical sensor at a desired amplification factor; an A/D converter which A/D (Analog/Digital) converts the output of the amplifier; and a judging section which judges a type of paper like types of money and distinguishes between the original and an imitation of the money, by comparing the output of the A/D converter with dictionary data prepared in advance to make judgement.
According to the conventional paper processing apparatus, it is not possible to judge types of money when two or more sheets of paper are conveyed in a superimposed status (double fed) or when sheets of paper are conveyed with excessively small distance between the sheets of paper. Therefore, in this case, the sheets of paper for which it has not been possible to judge types of money are handled as indefinite types of money, and these sheets of paper are accommodated in a reject box or are returned to a customer who entered these sheets of paper.
When a conventional paper processing apparatus is applied to an ATM which has a function that could easily generate an abnormal status in the conveyance of paper, like double feeding, a rejection rate (the number of sheets of paper that have been handled as indefinite types of money/the number of sheets of paper that have been conveyed) naturally becomes high. Consequently, the entered paper is frequently returned to customers. Therefore, the conventional paper processing apparatus has had a problem that it is very inconvenient for the customers to handle this paper processing apparatus.
Further, while the unattended operation of the ATM has been progressed recently, there is a tendency that the span for an operator to recover sheets of paper from the rejection box becomes long, because of the nature of the operation mode of the unattended ATM. Therefore, this operation mode has had a drawback in that when a rejection rate is high, the rejection box becomes full before the operator recovers sheets of paper, and this causes problems in the operation.
Further, according to the ATM of the unattended operation mode, a monitoring sensor remote monitors a total amount of bank notes held in the apparatus. A number of sheets of bank notes and types of money to be filled/recovered are determined based on a result of this remote monitoring. However, in the ATM, as the types of money and the number of sheets of bank notes accommodated in the rejection box are indefinite, it is not possible to accurately understand the total amount of bank notes at the monitoring sensor side. Therefore, this has had a problem in the operation.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a paper processing apparatus which is capable of improving the precision in deciding types of bank notes and deciding a number of sheets of money, and is capable of carrying out a smooth operation.
According to the present invention, there is provided a paper processing apparatus comprising: a conveying unit (corresponding to a conveying motor 112, a conveying belt 113, and a central processing unit 210 in one embodiment to be described later) which conveys sheets of paper after taking them out; a light irradiating unit (corresponding to an optical sensor 241 in one embodiment to be described later) which irradiates light onto the sheets of paper that are being conveyed; a light transmission quantity detecting unit (corresponding to the optical sensor 241 in one embodiment to be described later) which detects a quantity of light transmitted through the paper; an external shape judging unit (corresponding to a type-of-money judging section 290 in one embodiment to be described later) which judges whether an external shape of the paper obtained from the light transmission quantity coincides with a prescribed shape or not; a correcting unit (corresponding to the type-of-money judging section 290 in one embodiment to be described later) which corrects the light transmission quantity, when a result of the judgement of the external shape judging unit shows that the external shape of the paper coincides with the prescribed shape and also when the light transmission quantity is lower than a light transmission quantity threshold value that has been set in advance; and a distinguishing unit (corresponding to the type-of-money judging section 290 in one embodiment to be described later) which distinguishes types of money and a number of sheets of paper, based on a light transmission quantity that has been corrected by the correcting unit.
According to this invention, when a plurality of sheets of paper have been conveyed in a status that they are completely superimposed with each other at the time of taking out these sheets of paper, the light transmission quantity of the sheets of paper becomes smaller than the light transmission quantity threshold value. Therefore, it is not possible to distinguish types of money and a number of sheets of paper, based on the light transmission quantity. Further, as the plurality of sheets of paper are completely superimposed with each other, the external shape judging unit judges that the external shape of these sheets of paper coincides with the prescribed shape. Therefore, in this case, the correcting unit corrects the light transmission quantity of the sheets of paper, and the distinguishing unit distinguishes the types and the number of sheets of paper, based on the corrected light transmission quantity.
As explained above, according to the present invention, when the light transmission quantity of the sheets of paper to be distinguished is lower than the light transmission quantity threshold value, the light transmission quantity is corrected. Therefore, even when the plurality of sheets of paper are completely in a superimposed status, it is possible to improve the precision in judging the types and the number of sheets of paper, and it is possible to carry out a smooth operation.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a paper processing apparatus comprising: a conveying unit (corresponding to a conveying motor 112, a conveying belt 113, and a central processing unit 210 in one embodiment to be described later) which conveys sheets of paper after taking them out; a light irradiating unit (corresponding to an optical sensor 241 in one embodiment to be described later) which irradiates light onto the sheets of paper that are being conveyed; a light transmission quantity detecting unit (corresponding to the optical sensor 241 in one embodiment to be described later) which detects a quantity of light transmitted through the paper; a light reflection quantity detecting unit (corresponding to the optical sensor 241 in one embodiment to be described later) which detects a light reflection quantity on the front and back surfaces of the sheets of paper; an external shape judging unit (corresponding to a type-of-money judging section 290 in one embodiment to be described later) which judges whether an external shape of the paper obtained from the light transmission quantity coincides with a prescribed shape or not; and a distinguishing unit (corresponding to the type-of-money judging section 290 in one embodiment to be described later) which distinguishes types of money and a number of sheets of paper, based on the light reflection quantity, when a result of the judgement of the external shape judging unit shows that the external shape of the paper does not coincide with the prescribed shape.
According to this invention, when two sheets of paper have been conveyed in a status that a part of a sheet of paper is superimposed with the other sheet, for example, the external shape judging unit judges that the external shape of these sheets of paper does not coincide with the prescribed shape. Therefore, in this case, the distinguishing unit distinguishes the type and the number of sheet of paper, for one of the sheets of paper, based on the light reflection quantity on the front surface of the paper. At the same time, the distinguishing unit distinguishes the type and the number of sheet of paper, for the other sheet of the paper, based on the light reflection quantity on the back surface of the paper.
As explained above, according to the present invention, when the external shape of the sheets of paper to be distinguished does not coincide with the prescribed shape, the types of money and the number of sheets of paper are distinguished based on the light reflection quantity on the front and back surfaces of the sheets of paper. Therefore, even when two sheets of paper have been conveyed in a status that a part of a sheet of paper is superimposed with the other sheet, it is possible to distinguish in high precision.
Further, the present invention, in the paper processing apparatus, comprises: a memory unit (corresponding to a memory section 350 in one embodiment to be described later) which stores data of types of money and a total number of sheets of paper held in the apparatus; and a data updating unit (corresponding to the central processing unit 210, and a correcting section 340 in one embodiment to be described later) which updates the data stored in the memory unit, based on the types of money and the number of sheets of paper distinguished by the distinguishing unit.
According to this invention, the data updating unit updates data stored in the memory unit, based on the types and the number of sheets of paper conveyed in a superimposed status. Therefore, it is always possible to accurately understand the types and the number of sheets of paper stored in the apparatus.
Further, the present invention, in the paper processing apparatus, comprises: a number-of-sheets-of-paper collating unit (corresponding to the central processing unit 210, and a number-of-sheet-of-paper collating section 320 in one embodiment to be described later) which collates the number of sheets of paper taken out by the conveying unit with the number of sheets of paper distinguished by the distinguishing unit, wherein the data updating unit updates the data based on a result of the collation by the number-of-sheets-of-paper collating unit.
According to this invention, the number-of-sheets-of-paper collating unit updates the data, based on a result of the collation between the number of sheets of paper actually taken out by the conveying unit and the number of sheets of paper distinguished by the distinguishing unit. Therefore, it is possible to improve the reliability of the data.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a paper processing apparatus comprising: a conveying unit (corresponding to a conveying motor 112, a conveying belt 113, and a central processing unit 210 in one embodiment to be described later) which conveys sheets of paper after taking them out; a light irradiating unit (corresponding to an optical sensor 241 in one embodiment to be described later) which irradiates light onto the sheets of paper that are being conveyed; a light transmission quantity detecting unit (corresponding to a sensor section 240 in one embodiment to be described later) which detects a quantity of light transmitted through the paper; a distinguishing unit (corresponding to a type-of-money judging section 290 in one embodiment to be described later) which distinguishes types of money and a number of sheets of paper, at least based on the light transmission quantity: an external shape judging unit (corresponding to the type-of-money judging section 290 in one embodiment to be described later) which judges whether an external shape of the paper obtained from the light transmission quantity coincides with a prescribed shape or not; a superimposed-conveyance judging unit (corresponding to the central processing unit 210 in one embodiment to be described later) which judges whether a plurality of sheets of paper are being conveyed in a superimposed status or not, based on a result of a decision made by the external shape judging unit or based on the light transmission quantity; and a saving unit (corresponding to the central processing unit 210 in one embodiment to be described later) which temporarily saves the sheets of paper at a predetermined position, when the superimposed-conveyance judging unit has judged that a plurality of sheets of paper are being conveyed in a superimposed status, wherein the conveying unit takes out the temporarily-saved sheets of paper, and re-conveys these sheets of paper, and the distinguishing unit re-distinguishes the types of money and the number of sheets of paper that have been re-conveyed.
According to this invention, when a plurality of sheets of paper have been conveyed in a superimposed status at the time of taking out these sheets of paper, the saving unit temporarily saves these sheets of paper at a predetermined position. Then, the conveying unit takes out the temporarily-saved sheets of paper, and re-conveys them. At the time of taking out the sheets of paper, there is a high probability that the plurality of sheets of paper are sequentially taken out one by one. In other words, the sheets of paper are conveyed one by one at the re-conveyance time. Therefore, at the time of the re-distinction by the distinguishing unit, it is possible to accurately distinguish the types and the number of sheets of paper.
As explained above, according to the present invention, the sheets of paper that have been conveyed in a superimposed status are temporarily saved, and they are conveyed again and distinguished again. Therefore, it is possible to increase the probability that the sheets of paper are sequentially taken out one by one from the superimposed status. As a result, it is possible to improve the precision in judging the types of money and judging the number of sheets of paper.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a paper processing apparatus comprising: a conveying unit (corresponding to a conveying motor 112, a conveying belt 113, and a central processing unit 210 in one embodiment to be described later) which conveys sheets of paper after taking them out; a light irradiating unit (corresponding to an optical sensor 241 in one embodiment to be described later) which irradiates light onto the sheets of paper that are being conveyed; a light transmission quantity detecting unit (corresponding to the optical sensor 241 in one embodiment to be described later) which detects a quantity of light transmitted through the paper; a light reflection quantity detecting unit (corresponding to the optical sensor 241 in one embodiment to be described later) which detects a light reflection quantity on the front and back surfaces of the sheets of paper; a thickness detecting unit (corresponding to a thickness sensor 242 in one embodiment to be described later) which mechanically detects the thickness of the paper; an external shape judging unit (corresponding to a type-of-money judging section 290 in one embodiment to be described later) which judges whether an external shape of the paper obtained from the light transmission quantity coincides with a prescribed shape or not; and a distinguishing unit (corresponding to the type-of-money judging section 290 in one embodiment to be described later) which distinguishes types of money and a number of sheets of paper, based on the light reflection quantity, the light transmission quantity, and a result of the detection by the thickness detecting unit, when a result of the judgement of the external shape judging unit shows that the external shape of the paper does not coincide with the prescribed shape.
According to this invention, when two sheets of paper have been conveyed in a status that a part of a sheet of paper is superimposed with the other sheet, or when sheets of paper have been conveyed in a status that a foreign material has been adhered to the paper, for example, the external shape judging unit judges that the external shape of these sheets of paper does not coincide with the prescribed shape. Further, the thickness detecting unit detects the thickness of the paper. The distinguishing unit distinguishes the types of money and the number of sheets of paper, based on the three elements, including the light reflection quantity on both the front and back surfaces of the paper, the light transmission quantity, and the result of the detection by the thickness detecting unit.
As explained above, according to the present invention, the distinction is carried out based on the three elements, including the light reflection quantity, the light transmission quantity, and the result of the detection by the thickness detecting unit. Therefore, when it is not possible to carry out the distinction based on only one element, it becomes possible to achieve the distinction based on other elements. As a result, it is possible to distinguish the types and the number of sheets of paper in high precision.